By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C — As a veteran newspaper journalist, I am tremendously impressed by the professionalism exhibited by so many young broadcast journalists in The Bahamas and the excellent quality of the broadcasts on the various “news stations.”
When I joined the staff of the Nassau Daily Tribune in 1960, ZNS was the only broadcast outlet in the country. Its general manager was Rusty Bethel, a white Bahamian with a booming voice who was also one of the station’s top advertising presenters. Rusty gained fame nationally because of the manner in which he advertised OK flour, during which he declared, “If it’s OK flour, it’s OK.”
ZNS newsroom was headed by Heather Woods, who was from England, and she was assisted by a young Bahamian, Calsey Johnson. They were later joined by Eldridge “Ed” Bethel in 1962 after Ed resigned from The Tribune, where he was a young reporter like myself who benefited from the special attention given to our training as young journalists by Arthur A. Foulkes, who was The Tribune’s News Editor at the time.
Both Ed and the late Calsey Johnson established long-time careers as broadcast journalists at ZNS and both subsequently became Bahamian diplomats after they retired.
For a long time ZNS had an ironclad monopoly on broadcasting in The Bahamas. Here’s something I did not know: ZNS is an acronym for Zephyr Nassau Sunshine, and it “was founded in 1937 to broadcast hurricane warnings to the islands throughout the archipelago,” according to Wikipedia.
Operated by the state-owned Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (BCB), ZNS-TV was launched in 1977. Its two transmitters, serving Nassau and Freeport, are the only over-the-air TV stations in the country.
“BCB also owns ZNS-1 AM Radio 1540 (a clear-channel station), its repeater, ZNS-1 on 104.5, ZNS-2 AM 1240, 107.9 “Inspiration 107.9 FM” in Nassau, and ZNS-3 AM 810 / FM 104.5 “Power 104.5” in Freeport.”
Thanks to former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, ZNS’ monopoly ended when Ingraham opened up the airwaves and granted several private broadcast licenses. Nowadays, there seems to be more radio stations in The Bahamas than crabs in my native Andros during crab-walking season.
Meanwhile, Internet technology has spawned a Television News Broadcasts genre that has relegated ZNS-TV News to the “Old Folks Home” for news broadcasts, so to speak, with JNC-CHANNEL 14, EYEWITNESS NEWS and OUR NEWS taking the lead in the category of Excellence in Broadcasting.
Of course, JNC-CHANNEL 14 is a part of Jones Communications Network, owned by one The Bahamas’ most renowned broadcast journalists, Wendall Jones, who also owns LOVE-97, one of the country’s top radio stations.
It is also worth noting that Clint Watson, News Director at EYEWITNESS NEWS, honed his broadcasting skills during his 13 years at the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas, where he served as an editor and anchor in the news department. At EYEWITNSS NEWS he has the support of a cadre of very talented young journalists and broadcasters.
Tim Aylen, my friend and former co-worker at the Freeport New when I was editor of that Grand Bahama-based daily newspaper, sent me this video of a recent OUR NEWS broadcast that’s extremely well presented: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/QgrcJHsNkdbrBdrDVFTjSQxcCBwrLfnvQwL?projector=1
